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QUESTIONS FOR HASBRO - round 90

Please post your VOTE for up to 2 {two} of the questions provided in this thread, letting us know which ones you most want to see asked on May 27th. Keep in mind that your votes in round 89 do not count in this round, so if your question is still on the list you may want to vote for it again.

Also, feel free to suggest new questions, but please keep in mind that due to the now extra-limited nature of the program, we cannot use every suggestion.

Current questions (vote for up to 2):

- Force FX has entered a new phase with the removable blade series, and so far we've seen the first couple waves. Thanks to Clone Wars, female characters are back on the rise in Star Wars and bringing in more female collectors - Ahsoka especially has been selling very well. What does the future of Force FX look like? What are the chances of Ahsoka's lightsaber being added to the Force FX line, better opening that market up to female consumers and getting Clone Wars main character recognizability?

- You have this nice new Qui-Gon Jinn figure that came out in the Jedi Evolution set, and has been re-released in the nifty Eopie mail-away set, yet both times the figure has been marred by including the blobby 1999 lightsaber accessory. Luke Jedi keeps coming out with either repaints of the ROTS Obi-Wan's lightsabers (which has different details), or worse, the blobby Obi-Wan POTJ saber from 2000. Both the '99 Qui-Gon and '00 Obi-Wan as Luke Jedi sabers also have the old smooth blade design without the flare on top of their soft hilt sculpting, and both Qui-Gon and Luke Jedi actually had better saber accessories designed during the Saga line, yet we never get them. And what about one of the most iconic lightsabers in recent SW memory, Darth Maul? There is no modern-quality version at all, the closest is the '02 Saga metal hilt with removable blades, but the blades break easily, so we haven't seen it in a while, and it's a bit long. We don't have a deactivated one to hang on a belt, don't have a 1-blade-activated version, don't have a "cut in half" version, Maul is pretty lacking for his weapon. Why are we getting old junky saber accessories with the modern versions of these guys? Why aren't we seeing better, more accurate lightsaber accessories for some of these fairly major, recognizable Jedi characters? And will these issues be addressed soon?

- Vader's TIE Advanced X1 has been using the same POTF2 mold for over 13 years now, and the design is showing its age. The cockpit hatch is all wrong, the window is too small, the implementation of action gimmicks hurts the movie-accuracy and just aren't that fun, the cockpit isn't terribly accurate or sized that well to modern Vader figures, and the color is the blue-gray color of ESB and ROTJ rather than the proper gray color of ANH - the only film it was in. This is Vader's signature vehicle, it should at least live up to the quality of the other vehicles in the line, much less represent one of the brand's top characters - especially since the Hasbro SW team's vehicle designs have been so good lately too. What are the chances of seeing something done to address those issues on Vader's TIE Advanced X1 in the foreseeable future?

- A few years ago, we asked about the chance for updating the role-play Han Solo Blaster and Stormtrooper Blaster accessories, and your response was a not at that time because they weren't supported by then-current entertainment. The existing role-play Stormtrooper and Han blasters are molds from the late '70s, now technically 5 decades old. While they do have some pretty decent design for items from that era, compared to Hasbro's newer role-play blasters, they come up a bit lacking in accuracy and features. We don't expect all-black movie accuracy due to safety concerns, but on those 2, the seams are a bit uncomfortable to hold, the lights and sounds don't deliver all that effectively and don't rapid-fire nicely; and on the Stormtrooper blaster, the stock is still missing in action, and there's never been a clip. With ANH being re-released next year on Blu-Ray, and in theaters in a few years, it seems like there are going to be opportunities to deliver updated versions of those 2 iconic blasters in the role-play lineup, so is there any chance of seeing that happen?

- Sgt. Bric's initial cartoon outing turned out to be kind of a bust. The character was an unmemorable jerk and didn't really add anything to his storyline. In fact, if not for the action figure you guys did, he'd be a complete nobody in 2010. And on top of that, the postage on his set when it arrived in Los Angeles was a whopping $5.15, so after the cost of the box and the handling, just getting it out the door probably ate the entire $6.99 right there. Combine that with the fancy packaging and the battle mat, and the fact that he's 100% new tooling with some pricey-looking (for CW) paint, and it seems like Bric's quite an expensive promotional venture for Hasbro to have undertaken... all for a minor jerk of a character. What is it about Bric that made you choose him for a big Clone Wars mail-away promo figure?

- The new R5-D4 figure does not have the painted red panels on his back. That might sound like a minor issue, but the panels are clearly visible in the film when the droid's motivator blows up, and they help give the little guy a bit more visual pop. Neither the 1996 nor the 2006 versions of R5-D4 had these painted either, so it's disappointing to see that the third time is not the charm (though it remains a detail that the original vintage figure got right). Given the number of running changes we've seen so far in The Vintage Collection, is it at all possible that this oversight might be changed on future shipments?

- The Force FX lightsabers are targeted at adult collectibles, for a group who generally desire accuracy in their prop collectibles, and yet the latest ROTS Obi-Wan's lightsaber with removable blade suffers a big inaccuracy due to the blade needing to be securely anchored. However, with your removable-blade designs, you've started using dummy parts to fill in the removed blades, and we wonder if you'd consider for future thin-necked lightsabers like Luke ROTJ and Obi-Wan having the removable blade take the entire thick "neck" with it and having a more accurate thin-necked dummy design replace it. That much weight anchoring has been accomplished before in the thick metal coupler for the Maul saber halves that screwed together, on these thin-neck sabers the neck could screw down to the top part of the grip. That would let collectors have their cake and eat it too by giving an accurate hilt prop display with the thin neck, while still having the light-up blade play using the thick neck. So has there been any consideration for that sort of thing, and might it be seen in future Force FX sabers when needed?

- In several instances now, when asked about the new Slave I getting an ESB release, the response is that it largely depends on how the current Clone Wars version does at retail. If the decision to release it this way is based off sales, why release this as a $100 set with a few re-released figures, and a vehicle repaint that wasn't really hotly requested? If this CW set does sell, does that suggest an ESB release would get a similar Ultimate Battle Pack treatment with the release of some new figures like Bespin Guards and an existing vehicle like the Cloud Car? If that's not likely in store for an ESB Slave I, why predicate that release on this one when it has a different pricepoint, market, and really a different business model altogether? Why release the CW one in this ultimate battle pack format, was this vehicle originally planned for the now-defunct $60 Deluxe Vehicle line and repurposed, was this always the plan for it, or if not, how did this come about this way?

- Given previous answers from Hasbro that a Cane Adiss figure was not off the table, and then the character showing 10th in the most recent Fans Choice poll, it certainly seems like eventually we'll probably get a Cane Adiss figure at some point down the road. With that in mind, has the Hasbro Star Wars team given any thought to how Cane, the largest character in the Fans Choice poll, could be realized as a product since he undoubtedly wouldn't fit on the current basic card - would it be a battle pack, a mail-away, an exclusive for Toys R Us (a good tie-in to the giraffe-themed retailer)? And has there been any discussion on a "whole creature" design for Adiss similarly to how the team extrapolated a fully-realized design for aliens like Dice Ibegon that were only prop puppet heads? Obviously we're not expecting Lucasfilm approval on any ideas you guys might have yet, but preliminarily, what does the Hasbro team feel a Cane Adiss figure would look like?

- The TVC Gamorrean Guard is an amazing figure, one of the best Star Wars action figures that Hasbro has ever produced. However, the quality of the figure combined with the fact that he's an army-builder, and the fact that he was only shipped 1 per case in 10 of the 11 Wave 3 case revisions (some areas never seeing those case revisions and thus not gaining from the slight benefit of 2 Gamorreans per case), and that he was never carried forward into future waves, creates the "perfect storm" of a figure that is nearly impossible to find at retail. Many fans are frustrated that they have still never seen a single Gamorrean in stores, and currently the figure can command a higher secondary market price than the original Kenner vintage Gamorrean from 28 years ago. We have heard the ROTJ wave is supposed to be shipping again in 2011, but many fear that it will still not be enough to fill the demand for the pig guards. We understand that the figure is a completely new tool, so its inclusion in the Saga Legends line will have to wait for a bit, but in any format, in the foreseeable future will we be seeing this figure more readily available, either included in other waves, or even put into Saga Legends? If so, how long would we have to wait for the Gamorrean's greater availability, and in what format?

Any thoughts on pulling back certain collector-targeted figures that have built up at retail over the last year, such as the Sandtrooper, Dengar, 4-LOM, the Endor Trooper, the Cloud Car Pilot, and especially the Vintage Collection ROTS Clone? While in the past with some figures like Yarna it was just that they were ordered hard and didn't sell through, with this particular figure you've got a Legends ROTS Clone next to it on the pegs that is less expensive, while many of the Vintage ROTS Clone have a defective, discolored helmet (even after the missing paint problems were addressed). While there is the usual peg warming status of a few figures causing a lack of new figures for the last 6 months, in many areas the build up of the TVC ROTS Clone is reaching an even more alarming rate. While future assortments of Legends may not have the ROTS Clone, and we would hope that future Vintage Collection ROTS Clone Troopers released have this discoloring problem resolved, as a collector based item with a more discerning collector willing to pay extra for a collector item, these Clones are not selling through and will still remain even if there is a lack of Legends Clones available. Any plans to resolve the pegwarming portion of this issue caused by the defective Clone?